Pick of the week

Viva
Verdi: Orchestral HighlightsFilarmonica della Scala, cond Riccardo ChaillyDecca 4783559
The bicentenary of Verdi’s birth coincides with a dearth of singers capable of
doing justice to his operas, so it is no surprise that Decca is celebrating
2013 by raiding the Universal back catalogue — with a bit of help from EMI —
for a “complete works” and this thrilling disc of orchestral highlights.
Chailly and the orchestra of La Scala, Milan, are surely a Verdian match
made in heaven, but we have had few chances to experience them together in
this composer on disc. Framing the programme with Verdi’s two most
substantial overtures, for his sprawling epics I vespri siciliani (Sicilian
Vespers) and La forza del destino (The Force of Destiny), Chailly includes
only two really popular numbers, the preludes to La traviata and Aida, played
with an ethereal, spatial luminosity that recalls the prelude